TSA's Top 100 of 2013: 30-26 - Luigi, Metro & Scribblenauts

There's no limit.

Joshua Hood, 4 years ago, 8 comments.

We’re up into the top third of our top 100 now, looking at games 30 and up in our list of our most anticipated games of 2013. Today I bring you teen horror powered by the PlayStation Move, two 3DS games (one also making an appearance on the Wii U), and two great looking titles from THQ. Read on…

30. Until Dawn

If you were looking for a studio to work on Move’s next flagship title, Guildford’s Supermassive Games would definitely be your best bet. As well as making Move launch PSN puzzler Tumble and the Sackboy’s Prehistoric Moves LBP spin-off, they have also produced the two Start the Party games, and are now working on the Wonderbook Walking with Dinosaurs project and this, a PS3 exclusive inspired by the greats of (cheesy) horror flicks.

Described by the team as “unashamedly teen horror”, Until Dawn sees a group of unsuspecting youngsters (warning bell #1) heading up to a creepy forest (#2) on the anniversary of their friends’ mysterious disappearance (and #3), and will almost definitely end with most of them dispatched in typically gruesome fashion. Using Move, you point your torch about to investigate, fire what weapons you can find, and remove clothes (saucy!), with the developers promising a variety of endings depending on your performance during the game.

For something so obviously inspired by previous works (and very aware of them), it sounds brilliantly unique as a game, and should be out sometime in 2013 for PS3.

29. Scribblenauts Unlimited

If you’ve never played a Scribblenauts game, you are seriously missing out – the games allow you to write any word to bring that item into the level to solve various puzzles, and rewards players who come up with the most creative solutions. Now the series is coming to the 3DS, Wii U, and PC in Unlimited, which adds in a massive free-roaming overworld to play around it when not solving specific puzzles and, except in the 3DS version, an object creator that allows you to create pretty much anything you want to and add it to the game’s dictionary.

Weirdly, Scribblenauts Unlimited was meant to release back in November, with the European release seemingly delayed at the very last minute. While this means that we’ll be waiting until next year for the series’ latest instalment it does mean we get to sneak a peek at what those over the pond made of the new version.

Most praised the development and refinement of the series’ staple gameplay, but reviews were a little conflicted between across the game’s platforms – for some, the Wii U version was kind of unnecessary seeing as you play the game exclusively on the GamePad, yet the 3DS version removes the game’s only real creative addition in the object editor.

Simply put, it’s still Scribblenauts and it’s still pretty repetitive but if you love the series and are just looking for new puzzles then Unlimited will be right up your street. Whether the £40 price tag seems prohibitively excessive when a content-filled and regularly-updated version of the franchise is on iOS for 69p will be up to you, but it is at least a good game regardless of where you play it.

Scribblenauts Unlimited is due out in February 2013 on Wii U, with 3DS and PC dates unconfirmed but likely not far behind.

28. Metro: Last Light

Metro 2033 was hard and pretty. That’s pretty much all I remember of it from my time with the PC version but it seems to have been received pretty well – averaging a Metascore of 79 across bothplatforms. Now 4A Games is back with a follow-up subtitled Last Light – less closely based on the work of Dmitry Glukhovsky (although he is still involved), and bringing the series to the PS3 as well.

Last Light's Enter the Metro Trailer

Pretty much the only news about the game over the last year or so, aside from the awesome live-action trailer to the right, has been more about the game’s production than the game itself – first it was Metro 2034, then Last Light; first it was confirmed for Wii U, then apparently owing to the platform’s “horrible, slow CPU” de-confirmed; and lately they’ve been pissing off series fans by making the game’s hardest difficulty mode a pre-order-only deal. So let’s try and talk about the game itself.

We’re still in the shoes of Artyom, we’re still in nuclear bomb-ravaged future-Moscow, and things between the factions of the Metro aren’t going all that well. Taking a look at the game last year, Dan was cautiously optimistic: “Responding to fan feedback from the first game, 4A are crafting more areas that provide scope for multiple routes and tactics. That means an increased focus on larger, more open level design. There is no one answer. Instead it’s open to interpretation and personal play style.”

Between established series like Dead Island and Crysis, and newcomers like The Last of Us, the first half of 2013 is pretty busy with post-apocalyptic releases, but here’s hoping Metro’s delay from this year has meant the team can polish up some of the issues that people had with the original.

Metro: Last Light is due March 2013 on PC, 360 and PS3.

27. Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon

We originally found out about Next Level’s Luigi’s Mansion 2 back at E3 2011, but a recent delay to the game has put it back again into 2013. LM2, a follow-up to the original GameCube title, sees dear Luigi sent off with his Poltergust 5000 – basically a vacuum cleaner – to investigate spooky haunted houses. It’s like Nintendo does Ghostbusters.

There’s not too much really out there about Luigi’s Mansion 2 (as it’s now apparently called again in Europe, while the Americans get the Dark Moon name), but from my time playing it at EGX earlier in the year, it seems to be a reasonably straight-up sequel, although the game’s 3DS exclusivity means there’s no second stick to emulate the original’s fishing-esque capture system; instead you simply press a button. Otherwise it looks good, plays well, and hopefully will be plenty of fun when it does eventually come out.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 is currently planned for a release on the 3DS in the first half of next year.

26. Company of Heroes 2

It’ll have been eight years since the original game by the time Company of Heroes 2 comes out next year, but that doesn’t mean this is just a quick “bring back the IP” cash grab from Relic and THQ – this is a true sequel, bringing the squad-centric gameplay the series is famed for to the snowy eastern front of WW2. The game’s shiny new engine and snowy setting also allows the team to introduce what Relic’s Quinn Duffy told Kris back at EGX is a metaphorical “neutral, third-party player” in the shape of “General Winter”, who (as Hitler quickly learnt) will “mess up everyone”. But while the gameplay is solid, Kris found that the really compelling aspect of CoH2 might not be what you expect:

There’s a mountain of gameplay mechanics I could talk about based entirely on a single, 15 minute level, but the important one is perhaps the most unexpected one – the game’s emotion. The thing about Company of Heroes 2 is that it makes you care about your individual soldiers and squads… It’s everything from the pace of the game to the way it makes you think tactically, through to the way that you watch your Russians crawl forwards on their bellies or lying as low as possible whilst a machine gun fires inches above their heads.

It sounds great, and you can read Kris’ full preview here . Company of Heroes is due out some time in 2013 on PC.

Join us tomorrow for more Top 100! And remember, if you’ve missed any you can catch up here.

Put me down for Until Dawn (assuming it’s not absolute arse) and Metro. Both look full of promise and in totally different ways. This is where the full gamut of games can be enjoyed (especially as I scroll passed Scribblenauts). :-)

I only recently got into Company of Heroes after the humble bundle – and I racked up several hours in just a few days! The gameplay is so addictive, and the missions are hard, but rewarding when you complete them. So I’m really looking forward to CoH2, I just need to complete all the addons for the first game!
I also got Metro 2033 with the bundle but am yet to try that, but Last Light does look good.

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